We are all patriotic to a degree, but how could we measure that? What would you do, to make a difference in your country?

So many people now claim to not watch the news or read newspapers because “it’s all too negative!” I say that is so unpatriotic that it’s almost treason!

Why?

Who did you delegate to watch over your country while you buried your head in the sand? If you are there to watch the politicians and anyone else making the news, at least someone has an eye on the country. But to say “I elected a prime minister to do that” is shameful. He is a public servant, there only to do AS WE DIRECT! And look at what they have done under our watch, while we were not listening to the news, “because it was so negative”…

They took us to war in the Middle East, without being elected to do so, in a war that should never have happened. That amounts to murdering our children.

They gave us a tax system that was treasonous to implement, because there was better available for our country. That amounts to theft and fraud, at the very least. If anyone else commits these crimes, they go to jail!

They signed a declaration (The Lima Declaration, in 1974 http://www.politicalguts.com/id40.html) that exported our small business industries such as clothing, textiles and footwear and small manufacturing plants to South East Asia and sent tens of thousands of our small businesses to the wall. Acting against the interests of a nation in times gone by was called treason, and the traitors were hung!

These are the people we left in charge! Look what they have done or failed to prevent just recently:

The health system is in crisis, there are drugs awash in our schools, our drinking water is being medicated against the advice of the medical community, the Carbon Dioxide argument is out of control (and this item alone could bankrupt this country within 15 years if the ETS is fully implemented). Our farmers are so over regulated that they cannot plough a paddock without permission after a few years, but they get so little support from the government that international suppliers can bring their produce in and contaminate ours and we have little protection against them. Our younger school teachers grew up and were educated in a system that failed to teach them maths and english, so they don’t know how to teach spelling and arithmetic to our youngest children! Our teenagers are drinking themselves to early graves with binges each weekend because they can, and parents are powerless to regulate their activities and the system encourages them to leave the family unit. Pedophiles and rapists are released back into the community to offend again, and victims of crime remain just that – victims.

And you want to bury your head in the sand while this is going on around you? Maybe THAT is why the news is so negative, because too many people chose not to watch it!

If you are patriotic, and I have no doubt that you believe you are, join the political party you vote for. BUT, and there is a but. First, read the manifest of the founders of that party. Then see if the party is true to it.

I was fortunate to be in Barcaldine before the “Tree of Knowledge” was poisoned and read the original manifest of the Australian Labour Party there. Stirring words, from great men, motivated by a passion for their country. But it has almost NOTHING to do with the ALP of today. You can’t read it and recognise the party from it!

I have read the original words of the founders of the Liberal Party, also great words, from noble men. But look around, nowhere will you see people of the calibre described in that document either!

Mr Don Chipp, founder of the Australian Democrats was possibly the last great statesmen in Australia. He left the Liberal Party and began the Democrats, disgusted with the state of politics in this great country, all those years ago. His motto was “Keep the bastards honest” and he stood in parliament and he DID keep them honest, as much as the leader of a minor party could. When he had the casting vote he used it generally wisely and certainly created debate that made sure the legislation was considered thoroughly. However, even his efforts were dashed when his party was betrayed by a later leader of the party, who literally slept with the enemy, coincidentally the same enemy who signed away the hopes and dreams of small business in Australia with The Lima Declaration!

There are also The Greens. Wonderful philosophies, and we need this planet to be protected and preserved so there IS a planet for our children to live and grow in, not to become just a polluted mining colony. Enter, The Greens. We all need radicals to help balance the ratbags at the other end of the scales. However, when the party advocates financial ruin through their blind ignorance of economic reality, you have to question at which end the ratbags are. Killing the goose that lays the golden egg by starving it to death is not in the interests of anyone!

What’s the point?

If the parties are not living up to their founders’ ideals, join the party and TAKE RESPONSIBILTY for dragging that party, whichever side you choose, back to what those noble men first envisaged!

Australia needs each of us to “keep the bastards honest”, as the politicians in general have demonstrated their inability to keep their snouts out of the trough. They have made life hell for that wonderful handful of people with integrity who entered parliament to go to bat for us! Those few politicians who do have integrity need our support. We cannot do it by ignoring the news, and watching the soapies and the Simpsons.

We have to be patriots, and take back this country from the ratbags who hijacked it.

How?

Vote in people of conscience and that doesn’t mean religious fanatics – that only exacerbates the problem. Community spirited people who also have demonstrated business sense, because Australia is just a business that has to be run, admittedly it is the largest business in Australia. Then when they are elected, keep them up to their promises. Keep talking to them, telling them what we need, congratulate them on their successes and remind them of what they promised – namely to serve Australia and its people, NOT to be RULERS of Australia and its people.

There is a significant difference there. Australians are not a nation to be ruled, we elect our leaders and politicians to serve the country and be at our behest, to do as WE, THE PEOPLE, request. If they fail to make that distinction, if they become power hungry control freaks, then WE, THE PEOPLE, need to kick their butts out of there and elect someone who WILL serve the people and the nation.

www.politicalguts.com was created for exactly this purpose, to “keep the bastards honest” and make sure they earn the wages they get. Too many of them are going off on their own agendas, retiring after a few years with massive wealth that could NEVER have come from salaries or their super funds, and with perks that extend for their lifetimes and keep their noses in the feed trough long after their integrity should allow them to ask for it.

Political Guts needs your help to do this, and the way you can do it is to look at what is written here, and act on it. Read the Political Guts website, and act on the suggestions there. Talk to your politicians, very firmly and demand what your community elected them for. Refuse to accept the bureaucrap that they dish out as policy. Demand straight answers to direct questions, answers that have the words YES and NO in them, and little else, especially jargon and waffle. Look around your community and take initiatives to make a difference there. Comment on blogs, including this one, and talk amongst your friends about what you feel and think. Watch the TV news and if it upsets you, do something about it.

After all, this IS your country! Soon it will belong to our children. What are they going to say if we let them inherit a corrupt, barren and bankrupt wasteland?